Calabacitas for Lunch

This is what I had for lunch today. Before moving to the U.S. this was the only kind of zucchinis I knew. In Mexico they are called calabacitas (the literal translation would be small pumpkins) They come in several forms and sizes, but they all have that yellow-light greenish look. I want to say they are a little bit sweeter than zucchini, but I am not an expert and I don’t know if this particular kind is known in other parts of the world. If you know more about this delicious family of vegetables, please enlighten me.

What I do know about them is that they are delicious, easy to cook and can be part of a nutritious meal. I remember they used to serve a stuffed zucchini dish at my parents’ restaurant. I tried to recreate it today and though I liked it, it didn’t have that mom’s taste I was looking for.

All I did was cut the zucchinis in half, stuffed them with a thick slice of ham and a slice of queso fresco (I held them together with toothpicks) I then coated them with 2 beaten egg whites and fried them. The last step was to cook them for 15 minutes in the same green salsa I make for green enchiladas.

The whole process took me about 25 minutes and I still have a big fat zucchini and a lot of the green salsa that I am going to use tomorrow in the fridge.

I want to make more zucchini dishes when the summer comes and we have fresh ones here in Ohio. If you have a great zucchini recipe I’d love to hear about it.

8 comments

Lovely lunch. I’m not certain about the difference between baby zucchini’s and larger ones but I believe you may be correct about the sweetness. My husband is explaining to me this second that you don’t have as many seeds in the smaller one and are in fact more flavoursome.